Having Faith
by LittleWesties9
Summary: He didn't understand, why was there a message? Why couldn't Church just say what he wanted to his face? Spoilers for S13E20 'The End'
Warning/s: Spoilers for Season 13 Episode 20 'The End' and some swearing.

I know it's been like a year since it ended but whatever and damnnnn... I wanted to see the aftermath of Church's/ Epsilon's message to the guys, so I wrote it (sorta) Anyway! This is my first fanfic (never thought I would do one but hey, here we are) and by extension, the first time I'm using these characters, hope you enjoy (whoever reads this) and feel free to review about any... Uh... Pointers? Tips? Something? I don't plan on writing another one, but hey, you never know.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything regarding Red vs. Blue. No characters, no nothing. If I did, however, North and York wouldn't be dead. ;_;

Edit: 20/02/17 – I just gave this fanfic another look and saw many mistakes, just decided to give it a quick edit.

Words: 1,687

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Tucker finally allowed himself to drop his sword as the last of Hargrove's soldiers fell to Simon's Needle Pistols. For a moment, he stood there shocked over what they had achieved a smile beginning to form before abruptly hunching over. He placed his hands on his trembling thighs and inhaled deeply, trying to keep himself steady.

"We—we did it."

A wheezing laugh escaped his dry throat; they were all alive! Tucker smiled tiredly, his eyes lazily scanning the room, watching the others as they all dropped their weapons once they realised the threat had passed. They all proceeded to collapse to the floor and gasp for breath to calm their racing hearts.

"I can't believe it, we're alive! We did it!" Simmons threw his hands up into the air in victory, summing up everyone's thoughts. Hums and words of agreement had floated around the room before silence descended.

"Hey, Church?" A soft voice spoke up, breaking the quiet.

"Church? Tucker, where's Church?" Tucker turned his head slightly and watched the man in the blue as he slowly pulled himself into a seating position and tilt his head inquisitively as he looked at him.

"Caboose, shut up. Hey, Church... get out here." He ordered halfheartedly before his knees finally gave out, causing him to land haphazardly on the floor with the others. However, in doing so, he failed to notice the continued absence of the A.I.

"Tucker, come in Tucker!" A loud and slightly desperate voice cut through the quiet, causing him to groan and roll onto his side. "Tucker, do you read me? Respond."

"Wash?" He answered back, causing the male ex-freelancer to sigh in relief.

"Yeah, it's me. We're here, and we got Hargrove. Where are you guys?" The exhaustion in his voice was evident it was clear that they weren't the only ones who'd had a hard time aboard the ship.

"We're in a lounge—" It could hardly be called a lounge now or before the attack, with its one table and mug. Honestly, it seemed more like—"Ah... trophy room."

"Alright, we'll be there in a few. Just check the others make sure they're all okay." Tucker nodded, then when he realised Washington wouldn't see it, he muttered a few words of confirmation and forced himself to stand. His eyes gazed around the room, vaguely taking in the state of his comrades.

"Are you okay Freckles?" Caboose looked down at his gun with childish curiosity, stroking it gently to check for damage of any kind.

"Affirmative. Captain Caboose." A mechanical voice droned back in reply.

"Freckles is okay!" He yelled happily, pulling the weapon towards his chest and rubbing his face—well helmet against the gun. Tucker turned his attention away, ignoring the creepy display of affection.

"Ow owww owww!" The orange armoured male moaned as he curled up into a ball, pressing his hands down on the wounds in his stomach.

"Doc get over here, Griff is injured." Simmons called out to Doc who was currently looking over Sarge who in turn was falsely complaining about Griff not being killed in action.

"We're all here." He replied after mentally counting his team members and the robots, thankfully it seemed that the whole team was all accounted for.

"Good, I'm glad you all made it." The smile in his voice wasn't missed by Tucker.

"Tucker. Church isn't here." Caboose looked around, noticing that his 'best friend' was still absent and had yet to appear. "He didn't come out before, is he hurt? Church! It's okay, Doc can look at you." He stood and appeared in front of Tucked, yelling for his leader to make himself present.

"Caboose, Church is an A.I and Doc can't do fucking shit." Ignoring Doc's objection, he accepted the pending transmission request from Carolina.

"Epsilon, I need you to rout us to you guys." Her strong feminine voice called over the radio, completely ignoring Tucker's existence.

It received no response.

"...Epsilon?" Carolina asked, her voice surprisingly revealing a hint of concern.

"Hey, Church, get out here." Tucker also requested in the same mannerism, only to receive silence. A small light blue message flashed up on the corner of his visor. 'You have mail.' He froze and stared at the note, it was a visual recording... Sent by Church. He didn't understand, why was there a message? Why couldn't Church just say what he wanted to say to his face?

"Epsilon?" She asked again. "Tucker, what happened? Where's Epsilon?" After no success getting to the A.I, she turned her attention to his host. Expertly, in her opinion, suppressing her growing fear with the lack of response from her friend.

"Owww! You're meant to be healing me not killing me!" Griff yelled out suddenly, causing Tucker to move his attention to the soldier briefly as he tried to push the Doc away.

"I've told you this before, I'm a medic!" He shot back, slightly aggravated at the reluctance of his patient, while ignoring Griff's protest of 'exactly!'.

"Griff, he's trying to help! Let him use his toys on you!" Donut's addition to the argument caused everyone nearby to groan at his choice of wording. Griff stared between Donut and Doc then began crawling away from the suddenly approaching pair, pleading for the two to stay away from him.

"Everyone shut up!" Tucker roared, before speaking in a quieter tone. "Play message."

'Hey guys...'

"Epsilon!" Carolina's loud voice called out in relief, causing Tucker to wince at the volume before a small smile broke out on his face, not that anyone could see it. Even though he wouldn't admit it, ever. He was glad to see Church appear and gladder yet to hear his friend's voice.

"Church! Just appear when we ask! Jesus Christ—"

'If you're hearing this then it means you did it.'

All surrounding sound around him ceased immediately. "Huh?"

'You won. You kicked the shit out of Hargrove's forces. I knew you could.'

"Tucker, what's going on?" Carolina and Wash asked concerned, both hearing Epsilon's voice through his headset radio.

"I... I don't know." Tucker managed to answer, completely forgetting that this was the message in his inbox.

'But this is my last stop.'

All eyes snapped to the door as Wash, and Carolina burst into the room, ignoring the bloodied corpses that lay in the doorframe and amongst the Reds and Blues.

"How the hell did you guys find us so fast?" Tucker asked, causing the freelancer to turn towards him. The duo quickly came to a stop behind Epsilon and stared at him in disbelief.

"Meta?!" Wash shouted, pulling up his gun and taking aim at the 'Metas' chest.

"Woah woah woah! Hey Wash, it's me!" Tucker waved his arms frantically in front of himself.

"Tucker? Wait... what?" He looked at Tucker indiscernibly, unable to comprehend Tucker wear the armour of the deceased former-freelancer.

"Who'd the fuck you think it was?" Tucker questioned irritably looking down at himself in Meta's armour. "Oh wait, don't answer that."

"Guys, shut up!" Carolina roared at the pair, turning away from the bickering duo to stand before the A.I, giving her full attention to him. "We can ask questions later, but for right now... I think we need to hear this."

Epsilon stared ahead, looking through the agent before him, his gaze was fixated on Tucker.

'See, when I came into this world, I was really just a collection of somebody else's memories. But with your help,' He reached out and gestured to all of them, Caboose, Tucker, Sarge, Griff, Simmons, Lopez, Doc, Donut even Carolina and Washington.'These memories... they-they took form! They became my voice, my personality. And, after a while, I... I began to make brand new memories of my own. All of these things are what make me who I am... but they're also holding me back.'

Everyone visibly flinched as the A.I's gaze roamed up and down Meta's armour.

'I can't run this suit as Epsilon, but if I erase my memories, if I... deconstruct myself, the fragments I'll leave behind will have the strength to get you through this. I believe that.'

Epsilon flickered, each of the A.I. fragments appearing momentarily in front of the team. Shocked, no one could say anything.

'I wish that there was another way. But I'm leaving this message, as well as others, in the hopes that you'll understand why I have to go this time...' He trailed off with a small broken laugh, shaking his head slightly.

"Come on man, knock this out..." Tucker said as he tried to deny what was happening. Epsilon paused briefly, causing a seed of hope to blossom inside his chest, that maybe just maybe he was actually there, that it wasn't a message he had... left behind. He felt pressure on his shoulder, shifting his eyes from Epsilon he saw Wash gave his armour a small squeeze, crushing his wish.

'It was actually Doyle who made me realise something that I've never thought of before. There are so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day, and because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after.

Epsilon seemed to look around at the team, his team—his family. All of them currently exhausted, but at the time of the recording, he must of must have been looking at them as they were ready to charge into battle, willing to live or die.

'But the hero... never gets to see that ending. They'll never know if their sacrifice actually made a difference.'

Epsilon began shifting between his different forms, flickering light a fading light. 'They'll never know if the day was really saved. In the end, they just have to have faith.'

Time stops as they all hear the sound of shattering glass fill the room and watch as Epsilon broke, fragmenting himself.

"Church!"

"Epsilon!'

They cried out, the swordsman rushing forward his hands outstretched trying desperately to grab onto the fading shards and piece them back together. But it was too late.

'Ain't that a bitch.'


End file.
